Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I know y'all are getting ready for Dr. Seuss to take over your classroom for the first half of March. So let's celebrate this author is style with some great ideas from fabulous Pinterest!

Here are some adorable ideas that will keep you busy all month long with fantastic Seussy fun!

Make snack time a little more fun and healthy! Who doesn't love a good snack to kick off some Seuss learning?

Click on the picture to follow a link to You Tube for a full Sneetches video! This is such a great book to learn about differences and excepting everyone.

Goldfish in a bowl to estimate! I'm doing this with my estimation jar!

Speak for the trees! Make an adorable Lorax bulletin board full of your students writing why we should take care of trees on different colored truffla trees. This could be saved for Earth Day as well!

Oh hello there Justin Bieber! Click on this picture so you can hear the famous pop star reading The Cat in the Hat! I'm pretty sure my kids are going to freak out and love this video. Reading rocks!

Promote reading in a wacky way using Thing 1 and Thing 2 inspired pencils for all the reading responses to wonderful Dr. Seuss books!

Go fishing for sight words in literacy centers. I've had this game forever these are just way cuter fish. I used die cut fish and wrote out sight words my kids needed to work on. Then I glued flat metal bolts to the fish and used a ruler as a rod and put a magnet on the end. My kids could play this game everyday they love it so much!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Show us your teacher "bag." What do you love about it? What do you wish was different? Dare to show us what's inside?

Oh yes I went there...I'm showing you the before and during pictures and inside of my bag. Don't judge me too much. ;)

Before pictures:

Crammed full of stuff!

My binder is so big you can barely tell what else is really crammed in there. I assure you it is too much!

During pictures:

Eek! How did I let it get this bad. I mean I have my old ID in there, throat spray, and sprinkles just to name a few random items that don't need to be in there. These are the worst pictures but it shows that my bag really needed to be clean out and organized!

I really wish I could just keep this bag cleaner because I started just leaving it at school and not even taking it home because it's such a mess! How embarrassing!

I had to dump the bag completely and sort through the mess.

Completely empty and gross! I had to clean this out!

This is everything that came out of my bag. How did that much even fit in there?!? So then I sorted the stuff into piles.

The piles are as follows: trash, things to file, things I need to put away at home and at school that don't belong in the bag, and things that actually go in the bag.

This is the trash pile... can't believe there was actually this much trash in my bag. This is pretty embarrassing!

This is the stuff that actually stays in my bag permentaley. Crayons, scissors, and decorative pins for the outside of my bag. Yes, I know they are a little cheesy but kids have given them to me over the years and I like to keep them for each holiday change. That shamrock is up next.

So I put everything away in my classroom that needed to be organized and then I put all the stuff I needed to take home that doesn't belong at school in this ziploc bag so it wouldn't stay in my bag.

After picture:

This is my super clean bag now. I took one binder home to laminate things and then have my other must keep items for my bag too. I feel so much better now that this project is done! I hope my bag stays this clean and organized! I feel like the biggest step is just cleaning and if I organize little by little and each day like I have with every other project I can stay clutter-free!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Today was a whirlwind day of everything PINK! We had our first field trip today to see the play Pinkalious and we had a wonderful time. My kids were so excited in the morning to pass out their valentines and that we were going on a field trip-what a special day in first grade! I had 5 chaperones-yes, a bit excessive I know but parents love to volunteer at my school. I was happy to have them though because they are all great moms who volunteer regularly and know my kids. I think that is super important on a field trip.

Speaking of volunteers...I had a parent try to sneak on the field trip. No I'm not lying, I'm actually serious. I had previously told this mom that she could not go because I pick chaperones on who turns in their forms and money in first. Well I had 5 chaperones who did that on the first day and they were my chaperones. The other people I had to turn down and say maybe next field trip. This mom was one of the people I had to turn down like number 10 but she still showed up ready for go on the field trip!! She came in my room backpack and all, gave her son his lunch and valentines, and then proceeded to chat with the other moms. I had no idea what I was going to say to her! She came to talk to me and I told her you are not on my approved chaperone list and you cannot go on the field trip. She tried to blame in on her son saying he did not turn in the forms. I told her it wouldn't have matter though because she didn't turn it in the first day. She left slightly put off but I think she was just trying to see what she could get away with if she just showed up. Has this every happened to anyone else??

The field trip day was as perfect as it could be though. Everyone loved the play and behaved. We had a nice picnic under oak trees on blankets in the grass. The kids got to run around when they were done with lunch. We took a lot of pictures and had fun! When we got back to school we watched Charlie Brown Valentine's Day and had ice cream from a wonderful chaperone. After the movie the kids went to P.E. and then our day was done. It was one of the best Valentine's I have ever had at school.

Here are all my lovely gifts my precious little ones gave me.

I feel so loved! :) It's wonderful having 18 little valentines!

The most adorable valentine box:

My valentines to them:

The valentines they made their parents:

Can you tell I love Pinterest from my pictures?!

I also finally made the crayon hearts. It was actually very easy to do! I heated the oven to 250 and melted the crayons for 10 minutes. Then I placed the melted crayons in the freezer for 15 minutes. Viola! I peeled the hearts out of the mold and had crayons! I highly recommend doing this because it is so easy, fairly quick to do, your students will love them, and you already have most of the materials.

I found this mold in the dollar spot at Target.

I know this post is getting long but I had to share this funny with you. One of my students (a ESOL student) asked me what you call someone when they are engaged boyfriend or husband? I told her you call them a fiancé. To which she exclaimed "You have a BEYONCE!" I am dying laughing and so is most of my class telling her "No, Beyonce is a singer I'm pretty sure she said fiancé." Gosh, I love my first graders! I now refer to my fiancé jokingly as Beyonce.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

So up-cycling is really just recycling again but I like the word. It sounds like a new thing. I tried to explain this to fiancé and he laughed "It's just recycling...you recycled and repurposed something." Yes yes, but it made me feel good! This summer I started to collect washed out tomato cans (we eat spaghetti every Sunday-it's a family tradition!) so I got a lot of cans. Now originally I had no clue why I was saving these but knew I wanted to use them for my classroom. Well I got inspired after looking at some blogs and Pinterest. I stuck cute labels on them and used them to hold various classroom items.

So here is my contribution to recycling for classroom use:

I just posted this one picture that had a few different size cans for paintbrushes, straws, popsicle sticks, and hot glue sticks. I didn't think you would want to see a whole bunch of cans lined up so I thought this picture would capture the use.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Super sweet Erin from Creating and Teaching was my partner for the Valentine Exchange. Now usually I'm not all lovey dovey over VDay but this year I decided to get into the sprit a little more. I'm a firm believer in any day can be a romantic day you do something nice for someone and tell them you love them. But this was a great opportunity to send some bloggy love out and the secret is out I LOVE getting gifts. (Does that sound selfish? I like giving too. I just love getting snail mail or packages!)

Anyways Erin is sooo cute and sent me darling letter with sticky notes attached to each gift! This made me smile A LOT!

Such cute monster love paper!

Teachers can always use cute paper! This crayon paper is too adorable!

She loves Sour Patch Watermelon Kids and I love them too!

This totally looks like a "J" by the way and I love it! This is best To Do list planner that has so much space and holds notes in a pocket as well. I've already gotten compliments on it!

I love this mirror and I'm trying to find the perfect spot. Right now it is sitting in various areas of my room and home trying to find a good place. I love the colors!

Thank you so much Erin! I love everything! I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Random plant I got from a student just to make my day a little brighter! Just had to throw it in cause I thought it was so kind.

Welcome to my blog! I have been teaching for seven years in early elementary. I taught Kindergarten for one year and have taught 1st for six years. Now I am on to a new adventure in 2nd grade! My undergraduate degree is in Early Childhood Education and my masters is in Reading Education. I also tutor students in third through fifth grade in reading before school. I love teaching elementary school and have a passion for reading! I got hooked on blogging when I saw all the amazing and inspiring things other teachers were doing. This is a little glimpse into my world as a teacher. Thanks for stopping by my to read my ramblings. :)